JANUARY 2ND, 1947 FLIGHT
THE RETURN OF CIVIL FLYING
TF the operators, clubs and private owners had been•*- ready, and if machines had been available, the first
day of 1946 might have produced a skyful of aircraft. Forit was on this day that, for the first time for six years,
the air was again given its freedom over the British Isles.But with the freedom came also restrictions in the form of
a spate of Notices to Airmen, telling the apparently un-controlled pilot exactly what he might not do. However,
one or two clubs, and at least one charter company, wereready to get moving at the firing of the starter's pistol,
though the former wer^working without a subsidy and the
latter without suiOn this same ]
1o be designated
i TV
Early in October, BaronNathan of Churt was
appointed Minister ofCivil Aviation.
gjrcraft.
Day Heathrow airfield—lateron Airport—was officially opened by
the Minister of Civil Aviation.Since but one runway was avail-
able, and buildings were largelynon-existent, the ceremony was
somewhat premature, and forall the normal services Hum,
near Bournemouth, continuedto be the terminal. However,
the ceremony drew attention tothe fact that London had an air-
field which would eventually beone of the largest in the world.
As a preliminary to the intro-duction of the Civil Aviation
Act, the first month of the yearsaw the publication of a White
Paper explaining the generalprinciples of the proposed
nationalization of air transport.In this nationalization there
were to be three " chosen in-struments" to deal with all
scheduled airline operations,while selected airfields were also to be taken over as State-
operated concerns. Later in the month the constitution ofthese three '' instruments '' was explained—British Euro-
pean Airways Corporation was to deal with European andinternal services; British South American
Airways Corporation was to run the serviceswhich its name suggested ; and the original
British Overseas Airways Corporation, with areconstituted board, was to deal with Atlan-
tic and Empire services. Until the passing ofthe Civil Aviation Act the new Corporation,
B.E.A., operated as a Division of B.O.A.C.,and were given the use of the R.A.F. Station
at Northolt as a terminal.
Empire Services
Shortly afterwards, B.O.A.C. outlined itsplans for the future with six major services—
to India, Australia, South Africa, WestAfrica, China and the North American Conti-
nent—while the European Division also out-lined its prospects for the immediate and
more distant future. Considerable changeswere also being planned by the Ministry of
ivil Aviation in the matter of flying licences,with the pilots' categories increased from two
to four in number ; these changes have notyet been put into effect.
While the appropriately but complicatedly named Pro-visional International Civil Aviation Organization was con-
tinuing its deliberations, in the eventual hope of worldstandardization of airline and airfield requirements, a bi-
lateral agreement was reached at Bermuda between theBritish and United States Governments concerning the
mutual operation.of services. This agreement providedthe greatest contribution to the future progress of Anglo-
American civil aviation relations, and was all the morepromising since both sides gave way in order that com-
fortable agreement should be possible. Meanwhile, agree-
ment had been reached, too, over the operation of thetrans-Pacific services, and British Commonwealth Pacific
Airlines was provisionally formed as a combination ofBritish, Australian and New Zealand interests.
While the chairman of B.O.A.C. and the Ministerof Civil Aviation had both, at different times, impressed
the public with the idea that, in future, Hying was to be^»offered to the many, rather than the few, the fa<& f^^
announced during February that no subsidyavailable for the clubs. A hunr
were, however, offered—manyin a somewhat poor state of re-
pair—and a surprisingly largenumber of pre-war dubs elected
to re-start or to continue oper-ations on an unassisted basis.
The flying rates, though high,were progressively reduced dur-
ing the year, but it would seemthat without direct or indirect
assistance the picture for thefuture is not very clear. At the
same time the Association ofBritish- Aero Clubs was re-
formed and renamed.
Mr. G. S. Lindgren, whosucceeded Mr. Ivor
Thomas as ParliamentarySecretary to the Ministry
of C vil Aviation.
Sir Henry Self, who filledthe new post of Perman-
ent Secretary to the Min-istry of Civil Aviation.
Atlantic Conference
March saw the first of a seriesof bilateral agreements between
the British and various foreignGovernments—in this case with
the French. The P.I.C.A.O.also started and completed a
series of conferences in Dublin, covering the problems ofAtlantic airline operation. On the debit side of the ac-
count, however, B.O.A.C. announced the discontinuationof their own Atlantic service, since the Boeing boats used
could no longer be kept serviceable. This discontinuationwas to hold good until the five Constellations, ordered
during January, could come into service.""Tie text of the Civil Aviation Bill was published in
April. In short, this Bill ordained that "itshall not be lawful for any person other than
the three Corporations, their associates andservants ... to carry passengers or goods . . .
upon any scheduled journey ..." The re-maining freedom was, however, being very
vigorously exploited by a rapidly increasingnumber of charter op^ators. A month or
so later the majority of these companies com-bined to form an Association which has since
been very useful fn the work of generally look-ing after the charter operator's interests. In
the course of long-range planning the Ministryof Civil Aviation announced future extensions
and developments for Heathrow, and, on thepersonnel side, the institution of the post of
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of CivilAviation in place of the previous Director-
Generalship.
During June, B.O.A.C., who had then ob-tained delivery of their Constellations, started
a series of Atlantic proving flights with theseaircraft. Unfortunately, at the beginning of
the following month, after an accident in theUnited States, these were temporarily grounded pending
modifications. In July, the Civil Aviation Bill was passedby the Commons, and after a little trouble over one or
two points, including a suggested fourth Corporation forScotland, was duly passed by both Houses.
During September P.I.C.A.O. delegates visited thiscountry to make a detailed study of the various radio and
radar developments, with the eventual idea of reaching adecision on standard radio navigational methods to be used
on the world's airlines. P.I.C.A.O. also reached a decisionin the matter of ocean weather stations and their approxi-